Crisis Negotiations
by Super duper Sumo
Summary: "The Ceph was only the start. Their technology has guided us towards the stars. We are greater then we have ever been." But for humanity, the Ceph were only the beginning. Humanity is under attack. The stars hold many secrets. In times like this, humanity needs a leader. A icon. A role that Jacob Hargreave is not used to. But leading from the shadows has it's advantages.
1. Chapter 1

_**Crisis negotiations:**_

_**Chapter one: Hell of a town**_

.

Manhattan. Arguably one of the most important and well known cities in the world.

And a absolute cesspool. Barely a intelligent man, in this dump, clouded by the moronic politicians, Self absorbed members of society and, currently, almost 1.3 million alien soldiers.

The Ceph. An Ancient threat, finally reawakened. But they aren't the true threat to humanity. Alcatraz, the tireless dead man walking, is currently heading to deal with that. Armed with the Tunguska iteration, he was humanities best hope to deal with the current Ceph threat.

When I say this, I do seriously mean current. Of the few men and women I had informed of the threat that is currently tearing apart the US army and through New York, none of them, bar me, comprehend that they aren't the be all end all.

Something else is using them.

They are barely sentient, joined by something that can be compared to a Hive mind, or perhaps a post singularity society.

But each individual drone has little intelligence. Their minds are focused almost entirely on war. They aren't even Sentient, never mind Sapient.

Something else must have invented their advanced technology. Something else must've left them here, over two million years ago.

But as I approach the final minutes of my life, and the last moments of a privately owned CELL corporation, I no longer care.

Lo and behold, the destined savour of humanity couldn't give a toss if they live or die.

I'm by no means a simple man.

I am Sir Jacob Hargreaves, 140 year old CEO of the Cell Corporation, ex-head of the CRYNET board. Designer of the most advanced piece of military technology ever created by human hands. I've been into the heart of a alien ship, seen things that might drive a normal man utterly insane.

And yet, I cannot be bring myself to care about a species I fundamentally dislike once when I'll be dead.

"I wonder if they'll be a afterlife?" I say, no longer caring that I'm broadcasting to the nano suit. I may as well say something deep and meaningful, It'll make for a hell of a history lesson. Assuming any of these barely evolved monkeys get around to living past the next century.

"Choir of Angels? Or a fiery pit? One, unlearns these falsehoods over time. But the child that learnt to fear hell is truly gone. To tell the truth, I've had enough of afterlives as it is. This one's been pretty purgatorial." I say.

"Almost fifty years floating in supercooled jelly like some medical specimen. Thoughts... Creeping like rats through the cramp silicon corridors of machines. Trapped behind video screens and camera systems. Never sleeping. Never resting. Never ceasing to think about the world you no longer belong to." I

continue, aware of the juvenile rambling. But I was almost five minutes from a explosive suicide. I'm aloud a good rant.

"No... If this is a taste of the afterlife... I think simple oblivion will do nicely." I say.

If my face was capable of moving, I would've smiled.

I shut off the Microphone. Perhaps Alcatraz got that. Perhaps he's too much of a moron to understand. Hard to trust a man incapable of speech.

I checked the room in front of my chamber. Filled with smoke, fire and Ceph. They wouldn't get through the screen in time to kill me.

It was time for the final preparations.

_Computer system 832_

"Yes USER:HARGREAVE?" Asked the mechanical female voice. Why are all bloody computers female? And that way it says my name is really bloody annoying. I hope whoever scrounges through the ruins of this place wipes it's hard drive. Preferably with a bullet.

_Prepare operation: Pheonix_

"All data concerning the nano shell project and point to point drive being transferred to patent office." Said the computer.

I wasn't about to through away humanities chance at a future, or a singularity, because of a grudge. Perhaps someone almost as wise as me may pop up. God knows the American government won't be able to do anything about it.

"All Personal files wiped. Preparing for temporary storage." Said the computer.

_Temporary storage of what?_

"User: Hargreave." Replied the computer.

_Yes. What?_

"User: Hargreave." It stressed.

_You mean... What!_

"User: Hargreave is to be transported to off site facility in Cheyenne mountains. By force if necessary." Explained the computer.

_How the bloody hell do you intend to do that. I am your boss computer! I created you. I know every line of code in your system. What are you doing._

"User: Karl Rasch expresses sympathy for you, but must stress that it is important you remain alive." Said the computer.

_Karl? What the hell? You... Your supposed to be dead._

"User: Hargreave is reminded that, you are supposed to be dead too."

Before any explanation, before I could express my objection, the darkness over took me.

.

In 2023, humanity succeeded in stopping the Ceph threat.

Immediately after, New York was isolated, and Government scientists descended into the ruins of the city, including the Central Park hive and the ruins of the collapsed HQ of Crynet and Hargreave-Rasch, old Nano-medical company.

With the patents for the nano-shell somehow ending up on the internet, including it's power supply and active cloak.

What was surprising however, was what they discovered next.

How the Ceph arrived on Earth had been questioned by intellects since the Ling-shan incident. FTL is almost physically impossible. Previously only two remotely possible ideas existed. The alcubierre drive, needing huge amounts of energy and theoretical negative mass. And the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, which is functionally similar to the popular notion of a wormhole.

The technology discovered, only 3 years after the New York incident, conclusive proved that not only Einstein-Rosen Bridges were possibly, but also how to do it and that the Ceph used it.

But this was sidestep for a while. Slowly, even single Ceph hive was waking up. The need to reverse engineer the weaponry of the Ceph was crucial. Entire Countries were falling apart, under the boot of the Ceph. The three north American Ceph hives were keeping the American government, who had a monopoly on Crynet and Ceph tech, busy.

But with Alcatraz, the nano suit armoured solider, missing, without the Tunguska iteration, hives were almost unstoppable.

In 2027, the city of Shanghai was destroyed in order to contain the Ceph-Necrosis RV strain. Over 25 million people were declared missing or dead.

Just six months later, the Mombasa Hive was successfully contained by the African coalition, created just 3 weeks earlier.

2 months after that, the African coalition headquarters in Johannesburg were destroyed, by the Ceph naval Dreadnought.

Something had to be done, in order to stop the extinction of humankind.

The UN called arguably the most important it had ever called. Representatives from every on Earth, bar the collapsed state of north Korea, appeared.

After seventeen days of constant negotiations, Twelve fist fights, two bomb scares and a thrown podium, a deal was finally brokered.

Starting on that day, February 24th 2028, the UN formed the first international military force. With the American government and the Remnants of the African Coalition agreeing to share technology based on the Ceph's, the Human Security Alliance was created.

With the sole goal of defending Humanity from all further Ceph, or extraterrestrial attacks, they were able to begin to reverse the tide.

With the flagship "The HSA Arbiter", the Carrier formed by the US Government, armed with Ceph and Ceph based technology, they were able to hit all hive, even before awakening, within twelve months.

After almost two years, 47 million deaths, Twelve outbreaks of the Ceph-Necrosis virus, fifteen Ceph hives awakened, over 440.5 billion dollars spent, and Over three hundred patents, every single Ceph hive was destroyed.

.

"Members of the Committee. We stand at a precipice. Over a decade ago, if you had talk about Alien beings, it would've been followed by smiling at the camera and saying "We don't have any in storage. You can trust me." Now, we have succeeded in stopping a Alien threat. Now we have to decide what to do with the spoils." Said Abasi Owiti, Head of the UN.

"We now have thousands of scientists working non stop to unlock the secrets of the Ceph. To give a few examples, we are closer then ever before to unlocking micro fusion, we have a working naval ship with plasma weaponry, and we have a few scientists at C.E.R.N working on the technology of the Einstein-Rosen bridge." Explained Abasi. "We are on the verge of becoming a space bound society."

"The American Government owns half of the Patents to these devices. We would love to share our greatness with you." Said the American Representative, Frank Grimes.

"If you need to be reminded, we all have had access to that technology for three years. If you want to "Share your greatness", then you can wait whilst we actually use it." Said Jonathan McCubbin, the Australian Representative.

"We are still reeling from the war. Over 30 million people died in China. We lost one of our greatest cities. If we can stop masturbating ourselves for five minutes and focus on the fact that that we have million of people displaced from their homes, many of our economies are utterly broken, and there are still quarantine zones containing the Ceph Virus." Said the Chinese representative, Ozai Xiong.

"Yeah!" Shouted the Kenyan representative.

"Order!" Shouted Abasi. "You all bring up excellent points. Clearly we need to evaluate need over scientific wonder. It may piss off C.E.R.N, but we need money in order to deal with the massive amount of homeless people. In America, in Kenya, Near Shanghai and any other Countries. We'll come back after a break."

.

In 2040, after a decade of Societal change, scientific advancement and peace, the second Space race began.

**Hello people. So I read a interesting Story, where Hargreave might be alive in mass effect.** **Sadly, might is where that stays. The story only reached one chapter.**

**So I decided to continue this interesting idea, and perhaps world build a little.**

**Now, a big problem with many crossovers is how godamn over powered humanity gets. The Ceph themselves aren't that overpowered, the Nanosuit has some realistic drawback, and it's expensive as fuck. Plus, so much of it is based on realistic science. Which makes it perfect to integrate to the mass effect universe**. **No wondering how on earth no other civilisation didn't discover slipspace, or that kind of thing. Humanity in this timeline are unapologetic thieves. Worse thing is, they don't even know who... or what exactly they are stealing from.**

**Oh, and that's something really interesting too. The Ceph really aren't the be all end all alien threat. There is something behind them. Something almost incomprehensible.**

**And that's going to be a part of this.**

**Hope you've enjoyed this.**


	2. Chapter 2: King in the mountain

_**Crisis Negotiations:**_

_**Chapter 2: "King in the mountain"**_

_**.**_

_Where am I!_

_I demand to know!_

Godammit. It's dark. How could I possibly be moved to the Cheyenne mountains? I'm a barely living corpse of a man.

_And when did Karl Rasch ever code my private computer?_

This was worrying. I killed him.

I'm not going to sugar coat it. The man was... Unwilling to believe the true extent of what was needed to be done,

I never should have carried him out of Tunguska. But Gould would've hated me, and his family line has proven useful. Even their Meth addict Nathan.

But worryingly, Karl must be alive. I made that computer just two years ago. It can't possibly be really him. It just... Can't.

The darkness. It's all around. I can't hear anything either. Not a sound.

So, not much different from the last 20 years then.

.

Nothing is more sad then the European space agency.

Russia have never given up going into space, America have been on a separate celestial body, and China was fast approaching with a Mars shot.

With the Pre Ceph, and immediate post Ceph economies in absolute shambles, few agencies were willing to go through with any space ventures, minus spy satellites.

But with the new era of reconstruction, and of teeth clenched peace, once again humanity was looking towards the stars with wonder, rather then cold disinterest.

Thing was, most governments were hit hard by the Ceph. The need to reconstruct after the war was far more important.

This is were Europe comes in.

With only one hive, the Icelandic "kvik framandi hreiður", Europe got off relatively easily.

So, their announcement of a manned moon landing by 2043, with the express purpose of beginning to build a helium-3 extraction plant.

A ship was needed. Large enough to carry an entire mining facility, and get that into space, it was near impossible.

The technology needed would be difficult to acquire or build. A powerful, light weight power source. A efficient liquid fuel. A lightweight super strong material, and powerful mining equipment that could be assembled in unideal conditions.

Beyond the power of pre war humanity.

But with the cold fusion generators, Helium-3 engines and fuel, Carbon and Titanium nano tubes and plasma beam guns, the Ceph had given humanity the tech.

It took 10 years, 7 total flights, 9.7 billion simulated tests, the entire computing power of the supercomputers " 01001100 01110101 01101110 01100001" and "01010011 01110000 01100001 01100011 01100101" or "Luna" and "Space", 83 billion euros, and over 5000 total men and women, humanity began to build.

The first Moonbase was the living quarters and communications relay, located in the mare Imbrium, which could hold 135 people with hotbunking, and had a constant radio link with both NASA, the Chinese National Space Administration, The Russain Federation Space Agency, and of course, the ESA.

Next was the Various lunar rovers and mobility equipment needed to traverse the moon's surface, including Unmanned drones and "Space Trucks".

Then their was the Geological examination equipment, including small level Plasma beam cannons and the most advanced in mineral detection equipment.

By this point, other Space agencies had noticed how far the ESA had come, and joined in, offering funding, research and man power, in exchange for the moonbase being announced as a site belonging to the UN, careful to make sure no one country had advantages on the Moon's resources.

By the end, on 2056, the Moon base announced that it would begin exporting Heluim-3 and various rare metals back to earth.

It was a pinnacle of human achievement. Humans had been living on the Moon's surface for years on end. Space was becoming very profitable.

And what had started as a pipe dream of a failing space agency turned into humanity's newest business.

.

And in 2059, One of the most illusive of the Ceph's technology was cracked. The Einstein-Rosen bridge.

Or honest to god FTL.

It worked by

**[oh god. I know I'm info dumping at the moment, but if I explained how the fuck Einstein-Rosen bridges work, it'd take a fair while, so I'm put in in layman's terms]**

Got that?

No?

um...

So these "Point to Point" drives calculates a location, adjust for speed of light delay, and fire a quantum space time entanglement tear (Or QSTET) throughout the void of space.

It will not interact with real space until it reaches it's location. This QSTET may take a while though. The thingamabob travels at lightspeed. The closest star system is 4.3 light years away.

But when it reaches it's predisposed destination, that's when the fun begins.

The current position of the Point to Point drive will begin to tear itself apart. As will the location that was calculated earlier.

After a period of indeterminate time, the places will be joined by this space-time tear.

Of course, this isn't a tear in a piece of paper. The tears, depending on the energy and the lack of gravity, the tears can reach anything from 1km to 700km in radius.

There are problems. There is the time scale needed to reach distant solar systems, The enormous amount of Radiation released by the tears, and the fact that every tear has a time limit.

But, once it's set up, it's instantaneous, lasts a while and fairly energy cheap.

And we have it. At last, humanity can grab what is ours. The Stars will be ours.

.

_It's..._

_I can't even tell how long it's been. The silence is deafening!_

_I am Jacob Hargreave. _

_Born 1890._

_Son of Captain Alexander Hargreave and Elizabeth Harper._

_Tunguska. Ling Shan. Manhattan. The Ceph. Alcatraz. Prophet. Lockheart. Gould. Rasch._

_RASCH! God dammit! Who are you to escape death! To force me to escape mine!_

_The CEPH took you! They took your mind! You shouldn't be alive!_

_..._

_I am Jacob Hargreave..._

.

Humanity's Solar accomplishments were vast. The "Mars-Earth-Luna-Main Belt" Einstein-Rosen network were exporting and importing tonnes of material every single day. The total population of the moon had reached 789,760 by 2087. The Asteroid belt held almost double that in permanent residents, not even counting the various Mining corporation employees who traversed the field.

Space ships were being built in orbit, drastically reducing the cost of fielding them, and increasing their possible sizes. Utilising Titanium-Lead armor to survive the deadly cosmic radiation, utilising cold fusion power plants and Heluim-3 fuel engines and even a few very rare Quantum Entanglement communicators, space was no longer the final frontier.

The UN held jurisdiction over all of this, holding it for humanity.

But the laws against the Militarisation of space were falling apart. Earth needed to defend itself, from any possible incursion by rebel groups, such as the 20,000 strong rebellion of the asteroid "caeli limbum", which declared sovereignty by destroying the Crynet 0.6km long capital ship "The Tunguska".

Something had to be done.

The UN refused to form a military, stating it would impeach on the right of every Sovereign nation to defend itself, and could be seen as a attempt at uber-Globalisation.

In secret however, a organisation was formed to break apart any threat to Earth and her interests.

Spearheaded by Retired MI-6 agent Rosa Harper, the "Pinkertons" were formed.

Using the best in surveillance, military and augmentation technology, the UN set up a intersolar secret service.

Their field agents were picked from the best of Earth's, from MI-6, CIA, to C-Sec and NSIS.

3 months after the "caeli limbum" rebellion began, it was broken by infighting, assassination and the removal of any funding by extremist groups.

The Pinkertons stayed Disavowed and in the dark until sometime in the next century. But we will come to that later.

.

2115

.

The First Extrasolar Colony, Epsilon Eridani-B's moon, or as it's named, "New Shanghai", Is in the 15th year of it's life. It's population has reached a cool 36 million, mostly refugees encouraged to settle after the Yellowstone Micro Eruption.

The Organisation responsible for the settlement is the reformed UN, now name "The Human Solar Alliance".

With the population on earth reaching breaking point, now at almost 10 billion, the Extrasolar Colony race has begun.

Within the next few years, the Einstein-Rosen bridges between Alpha Centuari, Procyon, Barnard and 61 Cygni will open in the Sol system, offering perhaps many opportunity for colonisation.

But the year is most known throughout the pre mass relay Humanity for one reason.

On the 5th July, the mining ship "Prophecy" reached Jupiter's moons in a routine prospecting mission.

On the 6th July, all communication with the ship ceased, it's QEC refusing to respond.

A few minutes later, the last message of the Prophecy reached the mining base "Protendo".

"This is the UNV Prophecy, Chord Aerospace class mining vessel." Said the message.

"We are under attack from a unknown enemy, believed to be the Ceph. We won't last long out here. They're on Io!" The speaker was growing in nervousness.

"The Ceph... They've got fucking ships! They're waking up! Send immediate..." The message ended hear.

After a short while, the message reached Earth. Broadcasting on a open frequency, it sent ripples throughout the community.

The most terrifying news. Humanity's old enemy, developer of most of their technology, had reawakened once more.

The Ceph were coming to claim what was rightfully theirs.

But humanity wasn't as uneven as it had been in the last century.

The lack of Militarisation of space was seen as a naïve dream. Every country fielded military ships, but they could be counted on at most two hands.

The true fleet was the Human Solar Alliance Defence fleet. With several Dozens of high tech, advanced ships, they were going to meet the Ceph.

And Once again, we will turn their own strength against them. What was once theirs, now ours.

The Galileo Human-Ceph war, the first true space war humanity fought, had begun.

.

_I am..._

Warning. Possible Reawakening required? Class: B war.

_War? A Voice!_

After almost a century in the dark, even the mechanical voice of some unknown computer was divine music.

_Ceph-Human tension. Respond Crynet Director?_

Hargreave didn't hear a reply.

_The Ceph? What the hell? How long has it been?_

But there was no further reply. For some 1000 miles away, a man at a desk decided against awakening their weapon just yet. He wouldn't wake him up unless they were really desperate. The man was a criminal, a insane murderer, and a Sociopath.

He was a W.M.D, and Crynet weren't about to show their hand yet.

.

**So, more world building. This is a dull chapter, but next chapter will concern this new Ceph-Human war, the advancement of humanity's military technology and the discovery of the Mass Effect.**

**And soon, in maybe two or three chapters, Hargreave will return.**

**So, almost 100 years to even set up one extrasolar colony isn't bad. **

**And yes, the Pinkertons...**

**Hope you've enjoyed this chapter, and don't forget to review, favourite and subscribe.**


	3. Chapter 3: Galileo

_**Crisis negotiations:**_

_**Chapter 3: Galileo**_

_**.**_

Artificial Gravity had been ruled out as a "impossibility" by pre-ceph war scientists.

Indeed, without the Ceph, it is unlikely humanity would ever understand how to build it.

As it stood, humanity understood very little of how it worked anyway.

But utilising Quantum Attraction theory, a constant energy supply and Ceph based materials, it was possible to pull all objects towards a sheet of fine material.

Unlike true gravity, this only extended in one direction, and immediate cut off once you stepped out of the radius of the Gravitational plate. With current designs it could only worked for a maximum of ten metres. This limited the height of decks on ships, but was usually more then enough for most means. It also prevented the problem of bone entropy on longer journeys, and made human habitation of Asteroids so much easier.

.

The Humanity Solar Alliance had quite the navy:

It fielded roughly 56 corvettes, 43 frigates, 18 cruisers, two Carriers, a Battleship class, and several hundred fighter drones. All but the fighter drones fielded short range, low energy Einstein-Rosen bridge drives, usual for in system navigation. These Einstein-Rosen bridges typically had half lives of 12 hours, and sizes measuring from 100m to 500m radius.

The main Corvette class was the "Dirk" class, measuring at 197m long. Capable of 700 m/s² , armed with two light Plasma lances, 12 point defence cannons located on all sides of the hull and six nanite missile drones. These were missiles capable of breaking down the target and converting the material into more nanites to break down the target. They were dangerous, their only counter being friendly nanites. Of course, to prevent destruction of the nano bots, the missile had to hit the target with a relatively low speed. The hull was a Titanium nanite structure, capable of self repair, anti nanite capabilities and hardening certain areas of the hull depending on where the ship was hit. The corvette was also designed to reflect as little light as possible to screw with LADAR detection. It was also capable of temporary heat storage, but this at best lasted 30 minutes, before the hull began to strip itself apart and it's occupants begin to be boiled alive.

Corvette's are usually given names of rivers or seas.

The next step up in fire power was the 394m long "Gladio" frigate class. Capable of 597 m/s², armed with four front facing and two directional light plasma lances, 35 point defence cannons, Two long range fighter drones, 14 nanite missile drones and a Quantum entanglement device. They usually lead or are part of wolf pack flotillas, patrolling deeper space. They were incapable of heat stealth, but the hull was also designed to reduce light deflection in order to delay enemy detection times. They had a suite of detection systems, for anything from low velocity asteroids to hulking battleships.

These are usually named after famous battles.

Then the capital ships. The main "Claymore" cruiser class, measuring 689m long, and capable of 380 m/s². Armed with four medium plasma lances, six directional light lances on both the top and bottom of the ship, almost 50 point defence cannons, Six long range fighter drones, One "Shiva" class nuclear device,capable of 30 megaton explosions, 20 nanite missile drones and two QEC's. One linked to the "Arbiter

These are usually named after Cities on Earth.

The fleet was mainly the brain child of Admiral Thorne, the CEO's of both Crynet Aerospace and Mombasa Fleet Engineering, and, in secret, Agent Commander Anton Yegorov of the Pinkertons. Established in 2091, just as the Einstein-Rosen bridge for Epsilon Eridani began to travel through the void of space.

.

After the destruction of the UNV Prophecy, a single Frigate "HSA-D Alamo" was sent in order to confirm the reports of Ceph near the moon of Io. On-board was Captain Wilson (CO), Commander Davidson (XO), Navigator Seedhouse, Dr Frost (Xenobiology) and marine lieutenant Grigg. Three Frigates and corvettes and the Cruiser "Edinburgh" were ready to respond to any hails should the need arise.

.

"We've been scanning the Galieo orbit for hours. No sign of any life out here." Said Navigator Seedhouse, a tall, no nonsense women, with short cropped greying hair, sat on a console frantically looking at a stream of numbers, letters and readouts.

"We still haven't found the Wreckage of the Prophecy. Can we tune out natural heat? Every hour we waste, the ship's heat signature will become more and more difficult to detect." Said Commander Davidson, a short, well built man, with bright ginger hair. He had some burn marks, reminders of the Yellowstone micro eruption that scarred North America.

"I'm telling you, perhaps the ship got hit by some micro asteroids, and got it confused for the Ceph." Said Seedhouse, sighing.

"Bad enough to switch off it's QEC? Those things are impossible to switch off. We've recovered them floating around the Oort cloud after years of service and still working. It must've been evaporated entirely." Said Davidson.

"The Ceph are Biological constructs. It's entirely possible they've switched off all systems, and are just waiting out there." Added Dr Frost, a older man, with a slight German accent.

A wirey man marched into the CIC. Wearing the Captain's coat, with short brown hair, the man marched towards the gathering.

"That's not a good sign. Harry!" Shouted Captain Wilson, in a slight Kenyan accent.

"Yes sir?" Shouted back Flight Lieutenant Harry Dodds.

"Bring her down a notch, get Jericho to ready weapons. We are going to march into a trap unarmed." Said Wilson. Harry nodded in reply.

Wilson placed his hand to his ear, activating his radio augment.

"Lieutenant Grigg." Asked Wilson.

After a few moments, a gruff sounding scottish voice replied.

"Aye sir?" It replied.

"Get your marines into their Nano-shells, start preparing. We may have to repel borders, or even land on Io's surface." Ordered Wilson.

"Aye. Give us twenty minutes, and it'll be like Alcatraz himself is aboard this ship." Replied Grigg.

"Great. Wilson out." Replied Wilson. "Any heat signatures?"

Navigator Seedhouse looked back at her terminal.

"Nothing. LADAR says... Hang on. We're picking up something. Just coming online now. About 1000 klicks away. Heat signatures are increasing. Should be on LADAR... Now." She said pointing to the central CIC screen.

What appeared was a long, almost Tape worm like structure, Measuring 897m long. Heat signatures were increasing towards one could be described at it's "Rear end". Several other points were heating up on the ship too.

"Those are plasma weapons heating up, and it's not one of ours." Said Captain Wilson.

"This is your Captain speaking. All hands, prepare for battle. Harry, get us on direct line with that structure, we've got to hit it before it wakes up. Jericho, tell me we have weapon's online, I need to fire soon. Davidson, get on the line to the flotilla, the Ceph are here." Ordered Wilson ship wide.

"Aye sir." Replied Davidson as he rushed off to the comm room.

"Sir, Plasma lances are heating up. We've got to have more time." Replied Jericho on deck 3.

"Don't worry, that ship is still..." Said Wilson.

Before he could even finish that sentence, the ship shook. Readouts across the CIC began turning read, alarms began to sound.

"Situation!" Shouted Wilson.

"We're hit on deck 2. Hull's steady, and she'll fix herself, but we take another hit and we'll need to choose which we fix." Said Ensign Bailey.

"Get us on line with that ship Harry!" Ordered Wilson.

"Aye sir." Replied Harry.

"Gibson, launch all fighters, keep that ship distracted!" Ordered Davidson over the radio.

.

Fighter One

.

1010101010010101010010101

**ONLINE**

Orders: Distract target ship, protect missile drones

Likelihood of material survival: 3%, decreasing.

Increase Velocity and intercept.

Plasma coils heating up, ready:

Beginning attack

.

"Both fighters Launched. Preparing nanite Missiles." Said Gibson.

"Lances online sir." Said Jericho.

"We're on approach Sir." Said Harry.

"Right." Wilson ran towards the Captains Chair and sat down.

"One we are within 750km, fire." Ordered Wilson.

Another shake hit the ship.

Wilson and everyone on Deck 2 knew they were still alive.

"Damage report?" Asked Wilson.

"Hit the cargo bay. Hull at 3400c. Needs coolant." Said ensign Bailey.

"Lieutenant Grigg. Are your marines alright?" Asked Wilson.

"Were alive. Armed and Suited up sir. But the others... They weren't so lucky." Said Lieutenant grigg.

"Right. They've no intention of boarding, so aid in any capacity you can, await further instructions." Order Wilson.

"Aye." replied Grigg.

"I've reached Edinburgh sir. They'll get here soon. ETA 2 minutes." Said Davidson.

"Good. How far are we Harry?" Asked Wilson.

"83...820 klicks and counting. 5 seconds."Said Harry.

"Ready Jericho?" Asked Wilson. "1 and 2 only. Keep heat to minimum. When we get closer, fire everything we've got."

"Aye. 1...2...3 Firing!" Shouted Jericho.

At that moment, 30 litres of plasma at 6000 kelvin was launched at 14/Km/s.

This impacts with a astronomical amount of force.

And leaves barely a scratch on the Ceph ship.

"Shit shit shit." Said Harry.

"Evasive manoeuvres. Fire Directional lances, get us out of here!" Ordered Wilson, hoping that the Edinburgh would arrive soon.

"You're not going to like this. 3 more ships, same class, waking up." Said Seedhouse.

"We can't survive a fight like this. Not alone. Hail the Arbiter Davidson. Tell them it's the Ceph. And they are pissed." Ordered Wilson.

.

"This is Admrial Johnson of the HSA-D Arbiter. Please respond." Said a voice over the 2nd QEC.

"Aye sir! Commander Davidson of the Alamo. The Ceph are here sir. We're engaged with three cruiser spec Ceph ships. We've got reinforcements en route but it may not be enough. Does the fleet have any ships spare?" Asked Davidson.

The voice whispered to someone off comms for a few seconds, then replied.

"Son, if you're right and the Ceph is there, then we need as much as we can guarding the semi-permanent Einstein-Rosen bridges. I'll see if rear Admiral Kalvik can spare his Flotilla, but that is the best I can offer. I'm sorry Commander." Replied the Admiral.

"I understand Admiral. We'll try to keep you posted on the situation." Said the Commander.

"And I you." Said Admiral Johnson.

Aboard the Alamo, Admiral Johnson turned to the darkly clothed man on his right.

"Agent Commander. You heard it from the lamb itself. The Ceph are here." Said the Admiral.

"There's little the Pinkertons can do, but we've trained for this eventuality. Keep guarding the Einstein-Rosen bridges, and I'll contact you when to move the fleet." Said the dark clothed man.

"What's the Pinkerton's training?" asked the Admiral.

"We've prepared for many eventualities should the fleet fail Admiral. Pray tell we aren't needed." Said the Agent Commander. And with that, he left the room.

.

"Situation?" Asked Wilson.

"Three ships closing in." Said Seedhouse.

Another hit shook the Alamo.

"Hull breach on deck 3!" Shouted Ensign Bailey.

"What's the ETA on the Edinburgh!" Said Wilson.

Suddenly, all radiation readouts increased suddenly. About fifty kilometres in front of the ship, a Tear appeared.

"You called?" Said a voice over the radio. "Edinburgh to all ships, keep the Ceph away from The Alamo."

The ships gave covering fire as the Alamo speed towards the tear.

"Edinburgh to Alamo, Captain Walker talking. Head back through the tear to Earth. Warn them what's coming, we'll keep them as far away as long as we..."

"Sir... They're waking up." Said Seedhouse.

"More of them? How many?" Asked Wilson.

"I'm counting... 9. No...14... 23... 36!" shouted Seedhouse.

"Alamo to Edinburgh, there's just too many of them. We've all got to fall back." Said Captain Wilson.

"Can't do that. If they take the Einstein-Rosen bridge back they'll be right behind the fleet. We've got to give them more time. We'll hold them off as long as we can." Said Captain Walker. "All ships, guard that Einstein-Rosen bridge. If one solitary Ceph gets past, that's a thousand innocent men and women that die. Let us enter hell with a clear conscious, and drag our old enemy down with us! Stand fast. Stand strong. Stand together."

"We've got Schematics of the Ceph ship sir." Said Seedhouse.

"Ensign. Tell me. Are we still able to fight?" Asked Wilson.

"Sir, we've got two hull breaches. The nano bots are working fast, but it's going to take time. We've lost a lot of people." Said Ensign Bailey.

"Jericho." Asked Wilson placing his hand to his ear. "How are weapons?"

"Sir, all lances are fully heated and armed. Both fighter drones are still in the fight. I've got 9 nanite missiles still waiting to fire." replied Jericho

Wilson pondered for a few seconds.

"Seedhouse, Davidson, Frost. I'm ordering you to the life pods. Bring this technical data back to the fleet." Wilson placed his hand to his ear.

"Crew, this is Captain Wilson. If you are injured, or believe that you can best serve the HSA by getting back to Earth, please make your way to the escape pods. I am going to jettison them directly into the Einstein-Rosen bridge. You have three minutes to pack your shit and get aboard. If you wish to stay, then I'm not going to lie to you. We are badly damaged, against a far more numerous and powerful enemy. But here is where we draw the line. The Ceph have been on our Earth before. And they will not step foot their again. This ship will stay in the fight until help can arrive or that Einstein-Rosen bridge closes. The Ceph are going to take time to charge up to activate their own. We need to bring them down, fast."

"Our chances are slim, and I will go down with this ship. But the Ceph are not going to take our planet. Make your choice. And God have mercy on our enemy. For we shall not." Said Captain Wilson.

Davidson walked towards the Captain, and Saluted.

"Sir... It's been a honour." Said Davidson.

"Get back alive Davidson." Said the Captain. "get to the escape pods."

"Aye sir." Said Davidson. He waved towards Seedhouse and Frost, before making their way to the escape pods on deck 2.

.

The battle of Galileo was the first official lost of a HSA ship since the First Ceph war.

Twelve hours after the battle, a single, badly damaged ship limped through the Einstein-Rosen bridge.

The Edinburgh confirmed the worse. All other ships lost, only survivors being one hundred crew members of the Edinburgh, and seven crew who abandoned the Alamo.

The HSA immediately withdrew all ships back towards Earth and the Asteroid belt.

Thirteen hours after the battle of Galileo, in Earth Orbit, the most important military meeting of the century took place.

.

The meeting took place on the enormous situation room aboard the flagship of the HSA-D fleet, "The Arbiter"

"Admiral Johnson on deck!" Shouted Captain McKay.

The entire room, some near 100 Captains, Commanders, Vice Admirals and other members of the HSAD high command stood at attention.

"At ease men." said the Stout Admiral as he approached the Podium.

"By now you all know why you are here. The loss of the Alamo, the Balaklava, the Rubicon and the Prism island in Galieo orbit." Said the Admiral.

"And of course. The Ceph. God forbid, they are back. The information we were able to gleam from the survivors of the Alamo suggest they are operating highly advanced ships. We've got intelligence ships combing the area as we speak."

"What nation's intelligence service has agreed to do this?" Asked the relatively young Commander Tennyson.

"We have the best intelligence agents on it. Utilising the most advanced equipment earth can spare." Replied Admiral Johnson.

"That's not... Okay sir." Said the commander, embarrassed, and allowing the Admiral to continue.

"As of now, all nearby ships are withdrawing to Earth. Every nation is on Red alert. Any ships more beyond Jupiter orbit are being ordered to hold until further notice. And we have every ship we can spare guarding every single Einstein-Rosen bridge open. But the Ceph have this same technology. It is only a matter of time before they are here." Said the Admiral.

"As of now, the HSA has given me emergency powers. We are to move the HSA council to a safe location, and hold Earth. All other colonies are... on their own for some time." Said the Admiral.

He knew this wouldn't go down well. Over half the command were Asteroid miner sons and daughters. Earth kids were usually to soft for long tours in deep space.

The murmurs confirmed this. But the People stood resolute.

"I know this is tough. But all colonies have defence systems and QEC's linked to Earth. But There are some ten billion people down on that planet. And we are not letting history repeat itself. For if this boils over like it did in Shanghai..." The admiral paused, as a ringing tone emitted from his left breast pocket.

He pulled out a small device.

"Ladies and Gentleman... they've found something." Said Johnson. He pressed a button on the touch screen.

"Hello. This is Agent York. Our findings of the Jupiter moons has revealed almost 100 cruiser ships. They're massing over Io. But it's what's coming from Jupiter itself that scares us. Their is something big within the Maelstrom. We reckon anything from 10km to 150km large. Emitting enormous amounts of heat. Comparing to the Awakening data we got from the other ships, we believe it to be a massive Ceph ship, causing a local disturbance. The fleet seems to be holding in Jupiter orbit, but that could change at any minute. We will remain in QEC link, an report if anything changes." Said Agent York, carefully not mentioning the Secret service she belonged to.

"That can't be right... was he saying that the Ceph..." Said Vice Admiral Jules.

"Members of Command. It is of the utmost import that we return to blockade Earth as quickly as we can. I will give orders to individual battle groups within the hour, but if that report is correct then we are outmatched by the Ceph. We have to act." Said Admiral Johnson.

"Report what we just heard to the HSA council Captain McKay." Ordered Johnson.

"Be strong. Stand fast. We will never give up Earth." Said Johnson to the entire Command.

.

For 24 hours nothing happened.

After 36 hours, there were no more reports from the Pinkerton agents.

On June 10th, 2115, 14:39 EST, the first Einstein Rosen-bridge opened three light seconds behind Luna.

And out came the first Ceph attack.

The HSAD fleet was ready. Exactly 10 seconds after the Einstein-Rosen bridge opened, the entire Earth blockade was preparing to open fire.

The Ceph fired the first Salvo. With 17 ships, they fired roughly 600 litres of Superhot plasma at 0.005c.

This soared through space, carrying with it the force equal to several Hiroshima bombs in liquid form.

Nineteen ships were hit, with 7 taken out of commission almost immediately.

Whatever didn't hit soon continued to slam into Earth. In total striking with a force equivalent of several nuclear bombs, scattered across the Middle states.

"All ships, fire on those Ceph!" ordered Admiral Johnson. "Stagger the shots, cleanse area with missiles once payload launched."

Twenty seconds later, the HSAD retaliated. Firing Missile Salvo after Missile salvo, pre-empted with vast amounts of Plasma fire.

Ten ships of the Ceph's were destroyed, taking the fire of some 4 dozen ships. The other seven ceph ships were disabled, and soon torn apart by the Nanite missiles.

The ships on the other side of the planets had reached the battle field.

The entire skirmish was over in roughly a minute.

The death toll, including indirect casualties, measured 12 million.

"We need to force them away from Earth." Suggested Vice Admiral Jules of the Carrier "The Arcturus"

"We can't risk any more casualties on Earth." She added.

At that moment, they didn't know just how many had been killed, but the scorches were visible from space, almost matching the Scorches left by the Yellowstone eruption on the West coast.

"We can't choose were the Ceph emerge from. They could appear in Earth's Atmosphere, or they could appear on the wrong side of the Sun. We can't predict where they'll appear. We have to fight them wherever they choose to go." Replied the Admiral.

After a tense two minutes, with no more talking between any of the ships, it appeared as if the Ceph were not launching another wave immediately.

Several corvettes headed towards the Wreckage of the nineteen damaged ships, in order to collect survivors.

"HSA Arbiter to HSA Nile. Any survivors?" Asked Captain McKay.

"HSA Nile to HSA Arbiter." Said Commander Kolhad. "Nobody in the Coventry. Moving to the The Dublin."

"Confirmed Nile. Stay safe out there." Said Captain McKay.

He got out of the Captain's chair and faced Admiral Johnson.

"Any news?" Asked McKay.

"The Ceph hit Earth bad. There are fires spreading all over the great plains. But... The agent should be able to report soon." Said Admiral Johnson.

"Sir. If you don't mind me asking, just who is this agent working for. Only the CIA, MI6 and Chinese intelligence have access to any ships. And I don't think that that women belong to any of those." Asked McKay.

"Son, continue sector sweep. I need to know when the Ceph arrive. If our agent is right, and they've got some kind of super-ship, we need to be there. We've got the heaviest fire-power in the fleet." Said Admiral Johnson.

And it was true.

The Arbiter Class Battleship was a one of a kind craft.

At 1.09 km long, she was the largest military vessel ever constructed by humanity.

With 5m of Titanium nanite self repairing armor, Point defence weapons equal in fire-power to the main guns of a frigate and roughly 500 missile drones, she was the ultimate in force projection in the Sol system.

She had several unique features too.

Foremost was the main gun, the Super heavy Plasma lance. Measuring 500m, she ran down half the ship, and could fire roughly 500 litres of super hot plasma at 0.15% the speed of light.

Then there were the numerous QEC's. The Arbiter was the coordinator for the entire fleet, and as such had QEC links to most ships in the fleet, allowing for unmatched tactical feedback.

This was matched by the three supercomputers on-board, which took all tactical data and updated the entire fleet on enemy and friendly positions, status reports on all HSA-D ships and position of all Einstein-Rosen bridges.

The ship contained docking for over 400 fighter drones, all linked to the supercomputer network, allowing them to work almost like a hivemind.

An alarm sounded on the command deck of the Arbiter.

"Sir!" Said Einstein-Rosen engineer Ensign Pearce. "Detecting Tears. One... Wait... Seven... 19... 35... My god."

"How many?" asked Admiral Johnson.

"...about 100. All within a 100km area twelve light seconds behind the moon." She said. She then stared at the computer screen.

"Sir... Large Einstein-Rosen bridge opening about 14 light seconds behind the moon. It's... About 100km diameter." Said Pearce.

"Imaging from the Luna base should arrive any second...now." Said Ensign Pearce.

An image appeared on the main screen on the deck.

There were about a hundred small dots of light, presumably Ceph Cruisers.

What really took up most of the picture though was a enormous ship.

Unlike the worm like structure of the Ceph ships, this behemoth was similar in appearance to a coral. It was by no means a organic ship, the reflective metallic surface gave that away, but the ship had many organic like curves and lines.

"What the hell am I looking at." Said Admiral Johnson.

"I believe that's the super-ship that our agent talked about." Said Chief Tactical officer Commander Phelps.

"How large..." Asked Admiral Johnson.

"Given the proportions, I'm guessing about 65km diameter." Said Phelps.

"Na-Uzo-Billah." Said Tactical officer Al-Julani. "We're fucked."

"Indeed." Said Admiral Johnson. "Order all ships, go around to the other side of the moon, get away from Earth. Warn the other nations to hold the planet, we'll try to keep their ships off of us."

"Aye sir." Said Communications officer.

"Captain McKay, might I suggest we bring this ship to the forefront. Launch all fighters, and try and tear apart that ship." Said Admiral Johnson.

"Yes sir." Said Captain Mckay.

"To all ships of the HSA-D fleet. This is Admiral Johnson. The Earth must be protected at all costs. When mankind looks back in a thousand years, after years of peace and of war, they will still say that this was our finest hour. Stand fast. Stand Strong. And let's kick their Arse." Said Admiral Johnson.

.

_How long has it been? _

_It feels like days. Or perhaps months. Even years inside this darkness._

_And I know now that a war is going on. A war against the Ceph once more._

_They must've seen what I saw all those years ago in Tunguska._

_The Jupiter craft._

_I remember it as clear as day._

_._

The structure creaked and moaned against the snow.

The inside of the structure was not much warmer then out there in the blizzard. Gould and Rasch are behind me, insisting on staying inside the hole in the structure.

The more I creep along this tunnels... Their is a certain lightness to my steep.

Is their perhaps a lack of gravity?

It makes little sense.

Is this some kind of Martian craft, like from that H.G Wells book?

Or is it something else.

I entered some kind of antechamber. It was terribly cold. Without the seal skin coat I surely would've frozen dead a while back.

I definitely felt lighter now. As if gravity itself was beginning to fail.

At the heart of this room lay a single harness. It was of a reflective metal, and red highlights, seemingly made of glass.

"What the heck?" I asked.

For I was no longer in contact with the floor. Every motion I preformed seemed to massively shift my position. I was only slowed down by the air itself.

I wanted to grab the strange harness. It almost called to me.

I swam, if you will, towards the nearest wall. I then turned around and placed my feet against it. I then jumped off.

This sent me flying towards the centre of the room.

I grabbed the harness as I soared by.

I noticed that particles of the harness were hovering in air. Seemingly never straying from the suit. It was extremely small particles.

Dwarfed by the rest of the harness.

Greek word for dwarf is νᾶνος. So... νᾶνος particles? Or maybe...

My thought was interrupted as I slammed into the floor on the other side of the antechamber head first. I was concussed, my vision blurring.

And I swore, the room was getting much... much... colder.

I had no choice. I fell into unconsciousness.

.

_**Sorry this took so long, and sorry to end it here, but I thought the epic battle needed an entire chapter of it's own, no cop out like the earlier two battles.**_

_**And of course, more Hargreave. It's interesting the origin of the suit. Obviously Tunguska, but what was Hargreave, Rasch and Gould doing in the Russian wildness at 18 years old, and what happened to the crashed ship?**_

_**Question for the ages.**_

_**Hope you enjoyed this story, and I hope to update much quicker.**_

_**[Edited] **_

_**Huh. as of 20:20 pm GMT, the other new Crysis/mass effect story just got deleted after three chapters and two days here.**_

_**It wasn't bad either.**_


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